"Social apartheid" warning as 1.5 MILLION more kids grow up in poverty than 40 years ago

Poverty and disadvantage blights their lives and "unequal childhoods have become a permanent feature of our nation"

The 3.5 million children living in poverty risk growing up in “a state of social apartheid”, a charity has warned.

There are now 1.5 million more children growing up in poverty than 40 years ago.

National Children’s Bureau found pupils on free school meals are more likely to be absent through illness.

And despite being more likely to be underweight at birth, poor boys are three times more likely to grow up obese.

The charity warned: "There is a real risk of sleepwalking into a world where inequality becomes so entrenched that our children grow up in a state of social apartheid.

"This would be a society in which children's lives are so polarised that rich and poor live in separate, parallel worlds, and we tacitly accept that some children are simply destined to experience hardship and disadvantage by accident of birth,"

The NCB's damning study compares the lives of children today with the findings of a ground-breaking national study of 11-year-olds called Born To Fail? published by the charity in 1973.

Many are affected by poor housing, with one in every 14 children in England (around 800,000 in total) living in overcrowded homes.

This is less than almost 50 years ago but there are now a significant number (more than 75,000) living in temporary accommodation, the report said.

The inequality continues outside of children's front doors because the wealthiest young people are nine times more likely than those living in the most deprived areas to have access to green spaces, places to play and environments with decent air quality, the report said.

Younger children from poor homes are less likely to have a good level of development when they start school at age four and disadvantaged teenagers are less likely to gain decent grades in their GCSEs, including English and maths, than their richer classmates.

There are also serious health issues, the NCB said. Babies born into poorer families are more likely to be underweight, and children on free school meals - a key indicator of poverty - are more likely to miss school due to illness.

"What's more, society now faces a new health inequality challenge: obesity. Children from deprived areas are at least twice as likely to be obese as those living in affluent areas. Boys are three times more likely to be obese and girls are twice as likely," the report said.

In some areas the UK is doing well by children, with many taking part in early education and above-average literacy rates.

But in other areas, such as poverty, health, home and environment, the UK is average or worse, compared with other nations.

Comparing the quality of life of children here with those living in other industrialised countries, the NCB concludes that if the UK was the best place to grow up, nearly one million children could be lifted out of poverty, 320,000 more 15 to 19-year-olds would be in education or training, 770,000 fewer under-fives would live in poor housing and almost 45,000 fewer 11-year-olds would be considered obese.

NCB chief executive Dr Hilary Emery said: "All our children should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential regardless of their circumstances.

"We cannot afford to let them grow up in such an unequal 'them and us' society in which the talents of the next generation are wasted, leaving them cut adrift to become a costly burden to the economy rather than a productive asset."

The NCB is calling for a central government board to be set up to develop a strategy for reducing inequality and disadvantage.

Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children's Society, said: "Britain has made huge progress over the last 50 years, but this important report reminds us that the economic inequality that existed in the 1960s persists today.

"And children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds remain less likely to have a healthy childhood and an education that allows them to get on in life.

"We know from our work with families up and down the country - often already struggling to provide their children with the basics - the effect that major cuts to support are having on parents' ability to make ends meet.

"In Britain today, many families are still being forced to make harsh choices between putting food on the table or buying new shoes for school.

"The Government must do much more to protect children from the effects of cuts and end the cycle of poverty that ruins too many lives."

A Government spokeswoman said: "We know times are tough, and we are securing a recovery for everyone who wants to work hard.

"That is why we are taking action to help families with the cost of living by cutting income tax for 25 million people, which will save a typical taxpayer over £700, taking 2.7 million out of income tax altogether and freezing council tax for five years, saving a typical household £600.

"Furthermore, our measures to fix the welfare system with the introduction of the Universal Credit will make three million households better off - the majority of these from the bottom two-fifths of the income scale - and lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty."

She added the government is offering free early education for two-year-olds, and spending £2.5 billion on the Pupil Premium, which is funding for disadvantaged schoolchildren.

She said the 3.5 million figure for children in poverty used by the NCB is based on youngsters in relative income poverty after housing costs in 2011/12.

The Government and international bodies calculate relative poverty before housing costs, the spokeswoman added, and that on this measure in 2011/12 2.3 million children were in relative income poverty.